In July, the A+E Networks announced their remake of Roots,the 1977 miniseries based on Alex Haley‘s multigenerational portrait of American slavery. Back then, it was confirmed that Questlovewould be joining the team as the show's executive music producer to “create the authentic African sound and themes for the characters as well as produce the overall sound as the music progresses each night.”
As Okayplayer points out, Questlove recently spoke with Ebony in an interview in which he revealed more details about the music of the upcoming Roots miniseries. “Right now I’m doing the score. I wrote the theme," he tells Ebony. "The main score of Alex Haley’s Roots re-do is called ‘Binta’s Theme.’ Basically, they’re having this recurring motif that will somehow travel through all eras of this movie. So it starts with Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in Africa singing this to herself in the fields. And somehow this haunting melody will find its way into the psyche of whatever character."
“So I mean, it could be Kunta on the plantation in a church and he hears something like, ‘oh damn, that reminds me of that song my grandmom used to sing,’ ” he adds. “And then Chicken George and Kizzy will hear that: ‘oh man, this is what Kunta used to sing in the church.’ And there’ll be a juke joint. And then Alex Haley will hear it: ‘sounds just like the song my aunt Kizzy used to…’ And then Alex Haley’s grandchildren will be at the EDM club [laughter].”
The Roots remake will air across History, A&E and Lifetime in 2016 as a 4-night, 8-hour event and already has the likes of Laurence Fishburne (Alex Haley), Forest Whitaker (Fiddler), and more on board.